


The Elf and The Black Dragon: Season One

by UnscathedPaper



Series: Tales of Scales [1]
Category: Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies), The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: A whole lotta gore and eating, Alternate Universe, Amaya is a good Aunt, Amaya will break your jaw without blinking, Blood and Gore, Blue will be included much later, But it won't be cringy, But only implied and mentioned things about their world, Callum is skeptical, Callum/Rayla, Claudia is Scary sonetimes, Claudia is adorable, Creepy, Elf Culture & Customs, Ezran likes the Indopupper, Friendship, Hunters & Hunting, I hope, Indopupper hates Viren he does, Indopupper snuggles, Indoraptor - Freeform, Indoraptor and Rayla connections, Indoraptor constantly hungry, Indoraptor is a good murder doggo, Magic and Dinosaurs, Master/Pet, Original Character(s), Plus creepy Indoraptor moments, Possible Claudia/OC, Rayla makes him her puppy, Slow burn Rayla/Indoraptor friendship, Viren doesn't deserve his kids, Viren is a big meaniepants, Well eventually Callum/Rayla, tags will be updated as it progresses, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-07-14 15:50:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16043627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnscathedPaper/pseuds/UnscathedPaper
Summary: Rayla thought things were going to good for her. This was supposed to be the greatest time of her life--where she helped Ranaan and the others finally end the bloodline of the human king and maybe start the end of the war. She just needed to prove herself as a capable assassin and do what was necessary if she ever got the chance. She would be hailed as one of the heroes and she could rest easy knowing life would be better for the land of Xadia......but then this blasted, pain in the arse dragon came along and tried to eat her several times. It won't go away, it won't stop showing up to attack her and it won't stop being so unbelievably  terrifying either.She just wants the wingless devil to leave her alone.--Or--The Indoraptor, still very much alive, is thrust into a world without machines and technology. But he needn't worry; there's more than enough magic and non-humans to confuse him for weeks on end.(After watching the adorable accented elf girl for the fiftieth time, this stray thought popped up in my head about her and The Indoraptor. I liked what I imagined, so I wrote this fluffy, angsty, gorey thing. Given my Alt. Universe tag, some things may be tweaked/implied in this world.)





	1. Chapter One: Pain &  Bloodthirst

 

Chapter One: Pain & BloodThirst

 

* * *

 

 

 

It was a dark and stormy night.

 

He couldn't hear any patter or pitter from any water formations falling from the heavens, but he could very clearly feel the infinite assault of the rain on his scales. Given how long he'd been here, it was easy for him to run through various ways of describing the rain or what it made the night look like outside. He could recall several days that began with a dark and stormy night and went on forever or so just to describe the storm itself.  
  
  
It was raining fairly hard to compensate for the heat of the summer, so hard that it was difficult to see more than a few feet out past the dark shadows and describe anything in perfect detail. He could just imagine seeing tiny rivers and rivulets slithering down the crystal exterior of the mansion to drip from the upper panes of the window. When the constant waterfall fell to the lower panes it created the softest sound above the white noise of the raindrops that fell away from the castle. A never-ending wet splatter against a crystalline base, that sounded like someone pouring water onto a floor made of metal.   
  
The raindrops alone were like static to his restless ears by now, though they would twitch occasionally if thunder boomed just close enough to the mansion. The floor vibrated from the noise and as a result of the air clapping back together. The lightning brightened the room, but it never added color with it's presence. Such was a side effect the rain's soothing down fall--it turned the horribly colorful world around him into a realm of grey and white. It was almost painful to look at, let alone experience.

 

Pain was not a foreign thing to him. Pain was his entire life--every second of it. The moment he hatched had been a blinding mess of pain and foreign voices ranting about ‘success’ and ‘the future’. That was nothing compared to the hunger pains when those strange scaleless bipeds neglected to feed him for weeks on end, just to study his behavior towards a live goat. The crackles of their poking sticks hurt the most and often sent him into a fit of foamy snarling with a few well placed stabs here and there. He could fully describe the pain of just living in an empty cage, bones cramped and misshapen from having to position himself in such tiny quarters. Many mornings would consist of him trying to crack stress out of his neck without accidentally killing himself.

 

Being impaled on a skeleton was an entirely different rating for pain, however.

 

It was downright baffling. He couldn't even begin to wonder how he’d survived a fall onto such a dangerous skull. It already stung too much to breathe past the bone stabbing in one side of his neck and poking out the other. Just the sight of it was confusing to his still young mind; being impaled in two different parts of the body meant certain death. When that maintenance worker tried to change his lightbulb, impalement definitely spelled death for him. Why was this any different?

 

The pain returned every time he moved, shooting up and down his body. He wished he’d never just passed out when he landed, or at least missed the horns by a couple of feet. It was better than being stuck in a very painful position. The Indoraptor gurgled on a mouthful of blood, which joined the rain in dripping onto the floor. He still didn't die.

 

In pain, yet curious, the creature carefully placed a foot on the nose horn of the skull, then a little further up. A weak push made him slide up ever so slightly, but it was not enough to free him.

 

Frustration made him snarl unhappily. He pressed a bit more firmly against the skull and even used one of his hands to help. Slowly but surely, his body lifted itself further up the horns and finally managed to unsheath itself from the sharp tips. A strangled screech came from the Indoraptor when he made a clumsy tumble to the flat ground. Of all the pains he could list, that was probably the worst of them.

 

He lay motionless for an hour or so, afterwards, content to die of the massive holes in his body. Blood was certainly oozing out of his wounds at an alarming rate, and yet he didn't feel the icy cold grip of shock try to steal his life. He just felt the pain and the blood and the rain. Nothing more.

 

The Indoraptor whined softly. He got himself up on floors weakly, muscles shaking with strain as he righted himself. That accursed raptor--practically flinging him down upon the horns herself. A low snarl built in the base of his throat, but the hole in his neck made it turn into a sputtering cough. He settled for standing up on his hind legs and gently giving the room a sweep of his eyes and nose. Nothing was different from when he’d last been in this room except for a few new human odors. Otherwise, it was as if he’d been alone here for some time.

 

He limped his way into the hall with a measured pace, pouring a helping of blood here and there as a result. After a few meters of wandering around the more familiar sections of the mansion like a lost dog, The Indoraptor decided that carrying on after suffering such fatal wounds would be a bad idea for its health. It was night, and he would need to rest to clear its volatile head. He crept his way down, down, down into the lower crevices beneath the mansion and roamed past melty hallways of glass and concrete. There, he found his lonely den waiting for him with a door outstretched to welcome him. He entered the familiar, homely cage and stepped past the human skull inside.

 

He curled up and slept hard.

 

\--------------------

 

Rayla blinked herself awake from her thoughts, and saved herself from walking into a tree.

 

She had a bad habit of thinking a little too much when she was supposed to be working on a singular thing. Even when walking, there was a good chance a few stray thoughts would cause her to walk right off a cliff. But she couldn't stop internally admiring the way the forest looked as she traversed it's many strange corners. It wasn't like the gardens of Xadia, where a plethora of friendly creatures came out to greet you with open paws. Years of fear instilled by the likes of humans made these animals more skittish around anything that remotely resembled a human. Four fingers or not, one could not deny the physical similarities between the two species. Unless you ask Ranaan, who would heartily explain how elves are completely superior.

 

The Elven girl finally made it to her actual destination, a rock near the center of camp, large enough to sit on for a moment. They had taken two full days to sneak into the forest, and that took 48 hours of walking alone. Going that long without sleep was normal, but not something she liked if it was as random as this. Her body ached everywhere from being in constant motion, and she was forced to hide it so Ranaan didn't accuse her of being too soft for the team. However, she could tell even he was wincing a little, along with maybe two other elves in their little troop. She knew none of them would admit it.

 

A growl silenced her quiet thought process, and she leapt to her aching feet with daggers unveiled. It didn't take her long to find what caused the growl and she had to suppress a surprised grin. “Er...Ranaan?”

 

“Hmm.” The stoic elf sighed and gave a glum shrug. “I will admit, none of us have had much to eat during our journey.”

 

“Finally, you admit it.” An elf grumbled sourly.

 

“Too bad we didn't bring rations,” Another elf pointed out.

 

Ranaan gave the elf a disapproving look. “A true Moonshadow Elf can live off the juice from a single Rasberry, for weeks at a time. Besides...I warned you all to eat well before the trip.”

 

Rayla perked up almost immediately. She had a great idea for exploring more of the forest, if Ranaan gave her permission. “Oh! I could get us a deer to eat! We have our fire spells to discreetly cook it. No human would catch onto that, no matter how close they are!”

 

He looked skeptical of her offer, but the elves that spoke before agreed verbally. She waited patiently for his reaction, watching his falling expression. He rolled his eyes, but smirked all the same. “If you truly wish to move around so much, be my guest Rayla.”

 

She sprinted off before he could change his mind, grinning from pointy ear to pointy ear.

  


\--------------------

 

It was sunlight that awoke him, like the lights from those pestering scientists that always studied him in his cage and wrote things down on their little wooden tablet things. It was from a notable hole in the wall above him, peculiarly high all things considered, which allowed steady rays of sunlight to pierce through all three eyelids and hurt his retina. Snarling in discomfort, The Indoraptor slowly got on all fours and reflexively leaned back on his heels to stretch is long spine. After yawning wide enough to crack the joints in his jaws, he turned to examine the hole shaped wound near his flank.

 

Only, there was no wound.

 

He gave a short bark of surprise and sniffed the strangely healed scar a few times, nostrils filled with a greatly aged scent of blood. The beast was greatly puzzled by the smell of time that had passed from his wounds--he’d never slept five days in a row. In fact, he wasn’t quite sure if anything he’d ever heard of ever slept that long. His young yet intelligent mind was swimming with questions he couldn’t answer, and a truth that spawned them all. Not only had he survived very fatal injuries, but he also healed from those injuries in the span of a week.

 

A week. He’d been sleeping for a week, and it only felt like he’d dozed a few minutes. How many sunrises had he slept through, before this one awakened him? How many days had it been since he last ate that elevator full of humans, crunching their bones to a pulp and slurping down their brain matter from their skulls? Why had he not died?

 

Sighing, he resolved to make up answers as soon as he’d found something to fill his snarling belly--he must have some luck finding a decent meal out beyond the mansion. Perhaps once he caught something, he would come back and eat in his newly deserted home. The beast nodded to himself, having caught the tactic from watching humans, and started to step out of his cage...only to stop. His fiery eyes slowly glanced back at the dusty skull looking alone in a corner of the cage. For some reason, he didn't like the idea of leaving it here--it was the only thing he had a positive relationship with after all. He was heading out into a bizarre world that he knew about; maybe his toy could help steel his nerves, should they erupt?

 

Now carrying the clinking skull in the tips of his black claws, the Indoraptor waltzed out of the cage and down a hall that he knew would lead to a way up and out. Energetic steps propelled him forward; a great contrast to the tired gait he displayed earlier thanks to his grave wounds. Confidentially, he looked around his glass surroundings and paused when he noticed himself in a mirror. Indeed, he looked much better than before. The Indoraptor’s lips stretched with a pleased smile, before he started off walking again. Nanoseconds later, the Indoraptor shot back in front of the mirror glass and gaped.

 

Flesh was covering his teeth.

 

He pressed his snout against the glass to see better; he actually had... _lips_ . Thin flaps of flesh had grown from just above his sharp teeth and were blocking his pearly whites from view. With a surprised look in his eyes, the dinosaur flexed his newly grown flesh and examined the dark gums surrounding his teeth. Now thi _s_ was definitely deserving of an answer. Now he looked all too similar to that raptor that nearly killed him.

 

The Indoraptor grumbled incessant things at the back of his throat, made baritone by his own hoarse vocal chords. That cur of a demon almost killed him and attacked him with those annoyingly sharp claws and teeth. If she was still out there, alive and well, he would kill her. He would kill her and eat her and carry her skull around too.

 

The Indoraptor made his way up to the lowest floor of the mansion, where brown oak floors and walls greeted him. But as he pawed down the hallways like a great black wolf, his sensitive ears detected something. He paused in midstep while his sickle claws tapped the floor nervously; he had heard voices. Yes, human voices just beyond the corner of the hallway.

 

“You hear that, Kurt?”

 

A rough, yet feminine sounding voice made the Indoraptor’s jaw twitch spastically. The tapping claws became frequent. “Is someone knocking? What’s that noise?”

 

“Someone must still be here.” A confused male voice affirmed quietly. He could hear the human pull something out, then a metallic click--obviously the sound of a gun cocking. “Police! Come out and--Holy shi--!!!”

 

The Indoraptor often wondered why humans reacted that way to his appearance; their eyes wide and their mouths open in a locked scream of fear. Did they think that shrieking would save them? It was a reasonless reaction in his opinion and rather than allow the male the luxury of screaming, he quickly bit down on his head. A satisfying pop sent a fresh iron taste on his tongue and the blue-clad male went limp. The dinosaur ignored the headless body and whirled to face a barrage of gunfire.

 

The woman, with red hair that reminded him of that female on the roof, fired with frightening precision against his bulletproof hide. He roared in mock pain the more she fired off and pretended to fall over in death throes, twitching until he was certain that she had run entirely out of bullets. Then he kept himself perfectly still as though he were dead and his eyes only had slits to see through. He could see the shaken woman approaching with quivering limbs, her wide eyes taking in his gangly form with disgust and fear. She lowered the gun--perhaps to reload it.

 

He slapped the air beneath her chin and snorted as her throat burst open in a spray of red.

 

The gurgling human succumbed to death in seconds, and the Indoraptor was treated to the first decent snack in about a week’s time. His jaws tore into the bodies with some mild difficulty (they were wearing strange armor of sorts), tearing out great chunks of intestines and reveling in the blood he was able to drink from their corpses. Something about the taste of humans was addictive, especially compared to the unalive meat sections he was fed repeatedly--which were cold and tasteless when they slithered down his gullet. The Indoraptor ripped his head up after snatching up the lungs of the female in his jaws. Hmm, rubbery.

 

With a cackling snarl, the beast rose from the dismantled bodies and stomped off to find the entryway to the giant mansion. He cocked his head as he approached the giant doors, feeling some strange emotion in his chest as he began to pull the handle to open the door.

 

“ **_Chrak_ **.” He chirped in a low tone.

 

Was this uncertainty, the emotions of those fiendish humans? What an odd feeling. It was actually making him pause--making him stop to consider his options. Options that he didn't have much of, to be perfectly honest with himself; staying here would eventually lead him to run out of good food sources. He chirped again and forced himself out into the glaring light of the sun. He blinked and snarled at the giant yellow sphere. Such a bright thing. He didn't like the sun.

 

The dinosaur wisely turned his sights away from the sun, instead moving down the porcelain stairs and sniffing at the steel car with blue and red lights. It smelled of his recent meals; their sweat and odor mixing with the cold metal. They must have come here in this strange metal contraption, seeking...something.  He did not care what.

 

He looked up, using his great neck to look beyond the gravel courtyard to the forest in the distance. It faded in gradually, first as tall grass and then as a few sparse bushes here and there and finally as towering masses of oak. Trees--they were everywhere, as far as his eagle eyesight could see from his position. The forest loomed high with a shadowy background and dark branches, crooked as they tried reached out to him. Distant noises echoed from beyond the foreboding scene, sounds not dissimilar to the noises he'd heard the night of his escape. The whole mansion smelled of other beasts, including that raptor; he could only assume that they'd all entered the forest some time ago. This also gave him pause.

 

What compelled them to seek freedom from this place? It was the only environment The Indoraptor had ever known, save for that place with all the bright lights and humans crowded around him. The cold feeling of a cell had become him so much that it stung ever so slightly to be standing in warm soil, with a hot light boring down on him. Perhaps these other animals, like that accursed Raptor, were born in some forest like this and had grown used to living in an environment with so many...variables. The Indoraptor chittered to himself, claws tapping the skull in his grip.

 

With cautious steps, he plodded forward and disappeared amongst the trees. He would come to sniff at each tower of bark that he passed, big or small, until his nose had become bored of the scent of plants. When he wasn't attempting to sniff at trees, he was fighting off the assault of flies that had grown attracted to the human blood on his muzzle. His lips twitched back in an annoyed snarl while he shook his head--why were these tiny things so persistant on buzzing around his jaws, mindlessly lapping the red liquid staining his lips?The predator bounded forward in a loping run,outpacing the insects and giving himself a much needed rest from his pursuers.

 

About ten minutes of deep wandering into the forest, he came across a very pungent smell in the air. The Indoraptor cocked his head as the smell hit his nostrils with each puff of his lungs. It was bizarre; a strange urine odor, mixed with dirt. He chittered and stomped off in the direction of the smell, soon coming into a light clearing. In the middle sat a fairly large rodent-like creature with a stout body, stubby legs and a small head. It's body was covered in almost entirely black fur, save for the two white stripes running down its back and its very fluffy tail, which was mostly white. The creature was digging its paws into the earth for something until the dinosaur plodded into view, which caused it's fur to raise in alarm. The scaly beast watched in awe as the small creature raised its tail high in the air, and then backed up towards him with it. The Indoraptor wouldn't have guessed what this meant in time.

 

A yellow musk suddenly sprayed out from glands beneath the thing's tail, hitting his snout and nostrils in a great cloud. The black beast barked in outrage and alarm at the horrible smell that now clogged his nostrils, lips peeling back in disgust. He slapped the skunk aside with a clawed hand, barely caring as it crunched into a nearby tree or how the human skull fell from his grip. He had to get this horrible smell out of his nose! It was like the musk had stained his face with the horrible scent. He had to get it off, to smell something else.

 

Ignoring the dead rodent, he picked up the skull and  galloped off into a random direction to let the wind waft away most of the residue on his face, then stopped to rub his snout into the ground. The smell was still there, but he would be able to tolerate it and look for other scents as well.

 

He looked up from his position and noticed he was at the very edge of a large clearing. His eyes swiftly roamed over a field of very tall grass but stayed locked on a large thing in the distance--a large thing that made him snort in surprise and confusion. It looked so strange to him--a four legged thing with its appendages so long that it was nearly as tall as The Indoraptor, despite its head being bent low to the ground. Brownish black fur covered all of its body, some with great patches missing and some parts looking dirtier than others. Flies buzzed incessantly around its hindquarters, but their droning could not drown out the noise of wet chewing. When it's head raised up behind the cover of tall grass, The Indoraptor marveled at the sight of a fat snout and a fairly stout head that connected to it. Aside from unintelligent little eyes and startled ears, he saw that the beast had strange horns protruding from its head at odd angles. They didn't look as sharp as the Triceratops skull that nearly killed him, but they were intimidatingly big.

 

They stared at each other for a moment; him blinking and it drooling through a mouth full of grass.

 

Just when he was beginning to think they'd be like that for a while, the hair on the back of the thing's neck stood on end and it started to circle him. The dinosaur frowned as it drew near in it's movements and then, defying logic, it flung a hoof at his snout. A sideways hit made him snarl, both pained and confused by the actions of the beast. The furry creature tried to slap at him with both forelegs, striking blows to his ribs with its blunt hooves. In retaliation, the Indoraptor caught the forelegs in his jaws and crunched down. The furry beas beast snorted and pulled itself free soon after, but at the cost of it's own shins. With his skull toy rolling on the ground, The Indoraptor was free to hiss and dart forward at the unprotected neck of his foe. A satisfying pop had it go limp almost instantly, and the Indoraptor let the body of the moose fall to the ground.

 

The furry beast was still alive as he began to chew his way through its throat, at least until the eyes glazed over when his teeth scissored through the vertebrae. He picked up the neatly severed head in his hands and examined the teeth. Different than his, like those humans. But these had no canines. Just flat yellow pieces connected to gums and a uselessly rough tongue. The Indoraptor began to nibble at meat left at the neck when he thought he felt something beneath his feet. But it was nothing he could be certain of, so he kept snipping off meaty pieces.

 

The ground vibrated again. Then again. Then again.

  


He looked up sharply when he heard the crackle of tree branches, and his eyes widened in sudden terror. He had never seen any creature bigger than he was and therefore never thought that there might be something bigger out beyond the walls. The beast he saw lumbering out from the dark of the forest was an intimidating monster of immense size; a behemoth at least twenty feet tall and much longer in length. It's arms were tiny but it's massive jaws were not, made even bigger by the amount of teeth lining its gums. It halted on two legs in a stalking position and finally ended its thunderous assault on the earth. Black pupils dilated in the direction of the Indoraptor and an unhappy growl vibrated the air itself.

 

The Indoraptor warbled nervously and stepped back.

 

The Tyrannosaurus barked and raced towards him, its footsteps causing the earth to shake like rolling thunder. With a hiss of surprise, he sprang up and darted backwards to escape the menace that was all too close behind and starting to gain distance with each massive stride. He galloped forward on all fours and constantly tested the strength of his apeish arms by launching himself over the grassy floor. The giant beast lumbered along like a jogging bear chasing after a deer with a limp--drool falling from the generous lengths of her teeth. The monster ignored the carcass left behind in favor of chasing the threat with the familiar scent of a past foe. He could see in those orange, flaming eyes--he knew the beast would not stop chasing him until he was good and dead.

 

The Indoraptor sprinted with the aid of those powerful kind legs, whipping past winds at speeds he would probably never know or have ways of knowing. It wasn't long before his lungs began to cry and shrivel, begging for a slower gait so that they could gulp down some air. But to slow down meant the rex would persist longer and kill him. He had to keep running.

 

He lost his footing on a short hill and promptly the price by rolling head first down between a pair of thick trees. He rolled onto all fours and prepared to dash off again, eyes flickering to the mammoth creature on his tail. He bolted off and--

 

Where was the creature, anyhow?

" **Zuh**."

 

The Indoraptor padded to a halt and suddenly took notice of the fact that his certain death was gone, with no trace of footsteps or even a scent of follow. He sniffed at the air again, and then once more just make sure that was right. When he did this, he was quick to realize that the missing Tyrannosaur was not the only strange thing to happen just now. The sky was different-- the sun was starting to set now, as opposed to the morning light it had been when he first woke up. The forest was different too. The trees seemed...more flexible than they last appeared, more brightly colored green than dark moss. Scents of animals had changed greatly too--he now scented things that he was certain wouldn't have existed in the forest without him knowing. Perhaps that hill fall was higher than he expected.

 

“ **Hrek** . **Chah**.”

 

The Indoraptor clapped its jaws together noisily and decided to investigate it's buzzard surroundings--starting with the smells that registered the highest with it. He prowled to his left and was mildly pleased to find that--despite the hot sun blazing down on him with fierce intensity--the grass was soft like cushions beneath his padded feet. There was an abundant lack of insects as well, no flies to buzz around his jaws in a pestering manner. There was the occasional call of an animal in the trees, but it was nothing he found bothersome.

 

His tongue slithered out when he parted his jaws, flickering once before resting in his mouth again. A nice, warm heat signature about four yards to his right made his stomach growl with new life. Since he hadn't had the opportunity to devour that moose, he would instead settle for catching something new. He set the human skull down in the grass and began to creep towards the source of heat. Soon he found himself gazing from a large patch of bushes, red eyes squinting at a scene in the distance.

 

A deer--or a doe to be precise-- looked ready to bolt away from something in front of it, judging from the cautious angle that it's legs were locked in. It’s head was curiously leaning towards something bipedal and he found himself sneering-- _humans_. How had this one come to travel so far into the forest? He gazed at the four fingered hand it stretched out to touch the doe with, knowing in his heart that he would swat aside the deer and bite that feminine hand off. Then he would swallow her whole, kicking and screaming. His hind legs bunched up, preparing to spring forth in a flurry of muscle movement…

 

\-------------------

Rayla carefully knelt down in front of the skittish doe, leaning forward to give it an affectionate scratch beneath her chin. She grinned the more it relaxed, the more it nuzzled her hand. The Elven girl cooed gently as she appreciated the warmth of its furry texture, running her fingers along the all too delicate jaw line. "Aw. Ma team is hungreh. But I don't think you'd be big enough for the job, wee one." The doe curiously tilted its head at her as spoke, gazing up with liquid orbs of dark brown innocence. There was so much of it in this creature--in all the creatures of this forest. How such innocence could thrive in the presence of great evil was beyond even the greatest minds.

 

She pouted. Did humans ever appreciate nature, the way Elves did? Did humans ever stop to think of the things they consumed in pursuit of their dark magics? No, she was certain they did not. The way they acted was clear sign of recklessness in order to achieve more dangerous power. She would love the chance to see a human try to get up close to a doe like this--an innocent creature like this would smell their vileness from a mile away. They'd clear an entire section of a forest just to keep away from--

The doe was gone. It took her ten seconds to realize that it had vanished in a blur of black and red. It took Rayla five seconds to realize something warm had been sprayed on her face. She ran a few fingers over her face and stared intently at the dark red substance on her fingertips. What was this? It looked...like blood? Crunching and slurping noises drew her attention upward.

 

A pair of dilated pupils in the center of bloodshot eyes stared down at her and crushed what remained of the doe in a single bite.


	2. Page 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty happy with the positive amount of feedback and the fact that I've got a good amount of kudos! Keep giving me your thoughts on the tale!

Moonshadow Elves were not supposed to show fear, ever. To do so--to even have fear in the first place, was a sign of severe disrespect to their cause.   
  
  
  
Rayla knew this because she had been trained very well in the specific customs of this military clan, and how they dealt with any signs of fear among their ranks. Light offenses of fear were often dealt with being put on disgruntling duties and the bigger offenses would have one placed in a restrictive containment. Then you'd be put right next to the thing you fear the most, given that it's physical until you had eventually overcome your anxiety. She had heard stories of Elves being disciplined through pits of red-back scorpions and venomous spiders, or hung over a nice lake of M'oa constrictors. She was never sure if any of the stories were true, but she would hate be tied up anywhere near the likes of...this.   
  
  
  
This beast--This Dragon.   
  
  
  
Her eyes widened to size of dinner plates as she stared up,up,up at the towering monster. It's scales were black as night--maybe even darker--and reflected no light from the shining sun. It covered every inch of its twelve foot tall body except for a solitary speckled line running down its sides, colored a dark yellow. The black claws caused chilling goosebumps to pebble her skin; she'd never seen any creature with appendages so pointed or so long. They were practically curved swords, the lot of them--and those sickle claws on the feet looked like they could split a hair. It's apeish arms twitched spastically at times, almost scraping the claws against each other like twiddling thumbs.  A tail, a foot longer than its own body, swayed left and right not unlike the slither of a snake.   
  
  
  
She scrambled back as it crunched again and lifted it's head in jerking motions to swallow. The head of the doe slowly slid down its throat, eyes glazed with a permanent look of pain and terror. With more crocodilian head bobs, a large bulge was soon sliding down its gullet. Blood dripped down onto her legs when it's head finally began to lower, jaws opening and closing sporadically. Crimson liquid seeped from it's lips and mixed with a clear saliva on the way out. It had jagged teeth-- far too many of them to count-- hidden behind it’s obsidian lips.   
  
  
  
The worst part was staring into The Dragon's eyes, those bizarrely wide orbs. It's slitted pupils were dilated to black pinpricks in the middle of red orange spheres. It's bloodthirsty gaze didn't just stare into her soul--it climbed in and snatched it with a strong grip. Her body felt permanently locked in the hold of its eyes, like a hypnotized mouse in the sights of a serpent. There was no hint of mercy within it’s gaze, just a hungry glint as it sized her up.   
  
  
  
Rayla didn't know what to think, or what to do. Attacking it would be an undoubtedly terrible decision. She'd heard stories of human knights going to fight dragons lesser than The King of Dragons...but they hadn't been stories with happy endings. No, the knights in the tales usually ended up as burned crisps or even a pile of ash blowing away in the breath of the dragon. The less fortunate knights were mangled in the most gruesome ways and had their bones used for nesting or toothpicks. The young elf didn't fancy either of those endings, but still hadn't come up with a plan of attack or escape.   
  
  
  
At least, not until it roared.   
  
  
  
It's jaws snapped open in milliseconds to utter a roar that sounded much worse than what she expected a dragon roar to sound like. A dragon roar should be intimidating but also heroic in a sense, like a primordial battle cry of an ancient beast. But this Dragon had no roar--it was a scream of death from another world, not meant to be heard by the likes of a mortal. It sounded like an entire herd of pigs were being tortured and butchered in the worst way possible--shrieking at a pitch that hurt her sensitive ears. Yet there was a baritone edge accompanying the scream, like the howl of a panther in the night. However one may describe it's terrible wail, it was this sound that finally spurred her into an instinctive action.   
  
  
  
Running.   
  
  
  
Rayla shot up from the ground and bolted into the tree tops, forcing herself to ignore the rumbling bark of surprise behind her. Her nimble feet propelled her from tree branch to tree branch like a spry dancer, pushing her forward with speeds she didn't think she possessed. Wind made her eyes blur with liquid, but it was helpful for her panicking lungs. Hopefully the height advantage would allow her to get far enough away from it.   
  
  
  
Branches snapped noisily behind her, and some cracked with echoing intensity. She spared a glance behind her to reveal a horrifying sight: the dragon was racing over the branches she'd crossed. It scrabbled in a rabid manner across the wooden platforms and used its claws to hook into the side of the tree trunks it passed. It's tongue lolled from its jaws like a dog chasing a ball, and that comparison made her shudder all the more. Her thoughts flashed back to the mangled doe, the dead glaze in its eyes and the crunching noises. Once it caught up to her, she would be joining that deer in the belly of the beast.   
  
  
  
No! Don't think like tha’, Rayla! She told herself mentally, but still stared at the gaining creature as she ran. Just gah’ta get to th’ camp! Just a few more--   
  
  
  
She tripped over her own foot and fell face first into the ground below, caking half her face with mud. Rayla rolled to a controlled stop and got to her feet in seconds. She wiped the mud from her eye and looked for the black dragon...but she didn't see anything. Empty space sat where she last saw it, excluding a few falling leaves.   
  
  
  
She whirled around to face the source of a heavy thud and leaned back just in time to avoid a bite by the beast. It tried to swipe her legs out from under her but she was fast enough to jump and avoid a crippling blow. With an angered hiss, the dragon pounced at her and she was barely quick enough to roll beneath it. Instinct made her unsheath her blades, slashing it across it's belly before she stood up again. She was only mildly surprised to find that she hadn't made a mark--the stories did say that a dragon’s hide was indestructible. It didn't mean she couldn’t keep trying to dissuade it...somehow.   
  
  
  
“Beh-CHAK. gEH.”   
  
  
  
Rayla wrinkled her nose. The noises came from its jaws like bird chatters, if birds had baritone vocal chords and teeth like razors. It began to circle her like a starved Rentha Tiger, keeping low to the ground and ready to pounce. She got a better look at the beast from the side and didn’t enjoy what she saw. It’s back was hunched thanks to it’s head keeping low to the ground, but even it’s low stance had it’s back standing six feet above her head. To say she was afraid would be a grave understatement, but she had to keep from showing it. The Elf girl turned in opposition to where it turned, blades raised in a gesture she hoped was threatening. It didn't seem threatened. It was just circling and hissing like an angry cobra, quills rattling.   
  
  
  
“Hhhhhhhhhahk. Fnec. Chumf.” The dragon suddenly paused and faced her, gurgling noisily. A liquid sound began to build in the back of it's throat and its jaws opened slowly the more it hacked. “Skreei. Flugh! Klugh!”   
  
  
  
Rayla was even more confused than before. What was wrong with the creature? It looked like it was about to throw up--or maybe it was choking on something. She took a step back, wondering if she could find a spot to run for. There! A tree with a an opening just wide enough for her to squeeze into. Her nervous gaze swapped to the scrawny dragon. It wasn't doing anything to warn her of an impending attack, just occasionally jerking it's head up and hissing.   
  
  
  
Sphlat!   
  
  
  
Just when she started to squint closer, a wet slap made itself known against her collarbone and on part of her shoulder. She looked down and gasped with disgust at the black substance that she saw--the dragon had spit on her! How disgusting! Rayla grimaced as she wiped the stuff off quickly, but noticed something odd in a few seconds. Her finger, the exposed skin her suit didn't cover on her arms; it was all tingling as though she'd received a mild electric shock. Her skin was turning a bright pink where the spit touched her, an ugly shade of irritation. No. This wasn't spit. It wasn't--   
  
  
  
It was almost too fast to make sense of--she should have been more prepared. The moment she looked up to stare at the dragon was the moment she sealed her doom. A fluid blur hit her square in her right eye and a little in the left, bringing with it a pain she had never experienced before. She yelped as a ferocious fire consumed both eyes in a burning grip, forcing her to blink and rub at her eyes furiously. The pain intensified with each rub and soon it felt like red hot daggers were stabbing repeatedly into her eyeballs. Her blades fell from her hands just so she could try to keep rubbing them--she had to do something to get rid of the pain, anything! It was unbearable! Nothing mattered more than getting rid of it by now!   
  
  
  
“Augh! G-Gah,” The Elf Girl clawed away sparse amounts of venom and hot tears, falling to her knees in her desperate attempt. She blinked to try and clear her gaze and see again, but only flashing spots of light were visible to her. Was she blind?! No, she didn't want to be blind! Why was this happening to her? Why did--   
  
  
  
The ground vibrated when something began to circle around her. That dragon-- the devil himself-- made a hoarse cawing noise that sounded like cackling. It might as well have actually been laughing-- it had her in a very vulnerable position at the moment. Her heart rate rose at the thought of not being able to see it coming, and not being able to defend herself from it.   
  
  
  
Then her surroundings became entirely silent.   
  
  
  
Her breath hitched in her throat, almost instinctively making her go quiet so she could listen for anything--anything at all. Nothing happened for the longest time and no sound could be heard. A part of her wondered if she had gone deaf as well.   
  
  
  
Rayla screamed. A sudden force slapped her sideways and introduced three large whips of searing pain in her side. Her body rolled to a halt against what felt like a tree trunk, almost bending her ribs with the impact. A frightened groan escaped her as she tried to roll onto her knees and hands. A thousand searing needles bit down on her calf with excruciating intensity and yanked, flipping the shrieking girl through the air once more. She landed roughly on the ground, bending her nose in a way that shouldn't be bent on a fist-sized rock. Warmth trickled from her nostrils as the thing chortled. But this time it did not give her a chance to recover.   
  
  
  
A crushing weight thrust itself on her back, forcing her breath out of her in a wheeze. Try as she might push up from the ground, it did nothing to move the foot pressing her down, let alone to move period. She grimaced as a sharp point tapped her suit hard along her spine, almost testing for the most painful spot to stab into. Steamy breath wafted over the back of her neck and snaked around her horns, filling her nose with a rotting stench. The dragon rumbled triumphantly above her and tapped its sickle claw harder than before. She couldn't stop the pained whimper from coming out if she wanted to.   
  
  
  
“Rayla?!”   
  
  
  
Ranaan? Oh, thank Xadia.   
  
  
  
The Dragon barked directly above her and she cringed as it's hot tongue caressed her face, leaving behind a trail of stinging slime. Ranaan sounded too far away from her to be of any help, even if he could see them. Perhaps this was where and how she would die: mauled to death by a dragon. She never thought it would be like this; she expected a valiant death alongside her allies. Not...being torn up food for a dragon.   
  
  
  
Then something bizarre happened. Air whooshed past her head and then a smaller figure skidded to a halt beside her, followed by several more footsteps. “Rayla! Rayla, are you alright? What happened?”   
  
  
  
Rayla blinked at the voice beside her--the familiar presence beside her. She tried to speak but found her voice was clogged with a painful lump.   
  
  
  
“...D-dragon.”   
  
  
  
“What?”   
  
  
  
“S-Saw a d-dragon.”   
  
  
  
\-----------------------------   
  
  
  
The Indoraptor raked his claws down the side of a tree, growling it's frustrations to the heavens.   
  
  
  
He shouldn’t have been so playful with his food. The chase had gone well, even if she displayed bizzare leg strength in the trees. Her weapons had been useless and...his newfound venom appeared to work wonders. He just had to go to and toss her round for amusement! He should have ended it and carried her off to enjoy her tasty form in private. Now he had lost his lunch.   
  
  
  
And it wasn’t just his loss of food, but a more personal vendetta that he had created with that young female. He craved the scent of that one--he lusted for the taste of her blood in his jaws after licking her scrumptious face. It was different from the skin of humans, sweeter and tangier in so many ways. Even the appearance was addictively different from the likes of humans; what with her decadent horns and her tempting pale flesh. If he could just get his jaws around her graceful throat, her body would fit so nicely in his belly.   
  
  
  
He grumbled as he peered out from the bushes again at the gathering of the non-human, who tended to his prey in her feeble state. He had to admit that he had been greatly surprised by the venom that spurted out from his mouth, from glands beneath his tongue. He'd never done that before and had never even seen those holes in the mirror. Still, he was not complaining about his newfound skill--it would be very useful for hunting larger prey when the time came. He knew he would eventually encounter another moose or even have to fight that large animal that chased him here.   
  
  
  
“Let's return to camp. I have medical supplies and balms that should heal her wounds and clear her sight.” One of the non-humans remarked to the one he assumed was the Alpha. “And whatever is out there might return soon,”   
  
  
  
The Alpha nodded with a grim expression and soon he and his non-humans were carrying off his prize to who knows where. The Indoraptor chirped sadly as he watched her be carried off, his jaws overflowing with a fresh amount of drool. Alas, he would not dwell over the thought of her for too long--he would distract himself to keep from doing anything...brash. He snarled to himself to vent his frustrations, and noticed a particular noise in his throat. The dinosaur created the snarl with a lighter pitch, and then tried again with an even lighter pitch than before.   
  
  
  
“...A-Augh!”   
  
  
  
He breathed.   
  
  
  
“Augh!”   
  
  
  
That sounded…   
  
  
  
“Augh!”   
  
  
  
That sounded just like the pained cries of that female he attacked! He rubbed his throat in confusion, trying to make sense of his ability to perfectly imitate the noises. He was becoming more and more unhappy with the lack of explanation over his newfound abilities and he was uncertain why he was so grumpy now. His curiosity had grown since his near death experience, if seemed. His claws scraped over the human skull with thoughtfulness.   
  
  
  
The Indoraptor raised his head skyward and inhaled a lung's worth of air to determine what to do next. Above the smell of the non-humans, his senses gathered another scent that didn't seem quite normal in this forest. He chattered noisily and stomped off in the smelly direction to investigate, traveling through dense wooded areas and even a few clearings as well.  He galloped on all fours past towering masses of bark, admired the further darkening skies and slowly but surely made his way to the smell. It was not a particularly pleasant odor, but there were traces of tasty things involved with it. Perhaps actual humans? They often had more than one odd scent to them. There was also a distinct feeling he could detect in the distance--a high source of warmth the likes of which he had never felt before. He would never know that the cavities in his skull had alerted him to such heat, but he probably wouldn't care for such information regardless.”   
  
  
  
When he paused at the edge of a medium sized hill, he looked down to a bizarre display. There was a large campfire sitting in the midst of a clearing, surrounded by bloated figures sitting on logs. The Indoraptor watched without a sound as he examined the creatures closer. While their bodies were indeed meaty, their arms and legs seemed grotesquely long--even more apeish than his own limbs. Like Chimps socializing, they each poked into the fire with a large stick and grumbled to themselves things he couldn't quite hear. They were a green so dark that he thought they were black, with skin as rough looking as sandpaper and small pointy ears on their stout heads. From what he could see, they had beady eyes and a giant mouth of tiny yet sharp teeth.   
  
  
  
One of the creatures wiped along a jagged dagger with a dirty cloth, snot oozing from it's large nostrils. “An’ then he guts him, just like that. Says his flesh cooked pretty good with Banshee oil, but ya gotta marinate it.”   
  
  
  
He glanced at another creature. as he spoke up.”Elf with Banshee oil? Seriously? Everybody knows an elf would be better with Equjack peppercorn.”   
  
  
  
“Not everybody sees Elves, let alone gets a chance to eat ‘em.”   
  
  
  
“We'll have a chance if we tell the king about the one I almost nabbed. They catch em and give em all to us as a reward.”   
  
  
  
Perhaps they would have said more on the matter if he hadn't interrupted in a sudden, uncoordinated attack--rushing down at top speed and leaping upon them all with outstretched claws. Suffice to say, the odd creatures were highly surprised at the big black beast tearing through some of their frail bodies like paper but were apparently not the type of prey that preferred to run in such situations. A few quickly scooped up sharp objects in their hands and made to stab him with the likes of swords, spears and pointed maces. He grunted as their weaponry uselessly scraped over his pebbled skin, causing little more than an itchy irritation to spring up here and there. He used his tail to whip a trio of them aside and then swiped at one that was far too close, splitting his stomach open to reveal gristly intestines.   
  
  
  
The Indoraptor began to pounce on another when one of them grabbed something from the corner of his eye and shouted: “Lux!”   
  
  
  
An explosive flash of light knocked him sideways and sent his massive body sprawling away from the campfire. When he'd finally rolled to a halt and regained his senses, the Indorpator snarled at the fiendish creature that had blasted him back. He curiously gnarred as he saw what weapon the creature had used; it appeared to be a glass ball of some sort, containing a very bright energy within it's clear casing. This was the source of heat he'd sensed before, and even now it's raw energy was baffling to him. Not to mention troubling, if it could send him sprawling for a few paces. He shrieked at the creature holding the ball of yellow energy and huffed when it only glared at him.   
  
  
  
“It’s a damn dragon! There ain't supposed to be dragons outside of Xadia!” He regarded the Indoraptor with unkind eyes and a sneer. “Ugh. For a dragon, he's the ugliest son of a--”   
  
  
  
The Indoraptor had hacked up that black fluid by that point, hitting the creature square in his eyes and sending him into a screaming panic, one that escalated when the black beast bit off the arm holding the glowing sphere. After some difficulty swallowing the ball along with the arm, the dinosaur lept upon the unharmed bodies of the others and tore them open with the aid of his hungry maw. At some points, one of the squealing creatures would escape his snapping teeth for a short distance, only his claws to hook their spines and drag them right back to him. In under three minutes he had gathered their motionless corpses into a pile to rest upon.   
  
  
  
The amount of bloodflow threatened the campfire with extinction, but it somehow went on despite the liquids surging to drown it. A warm feeling began to emanate from his belly anyhow, most likely the result of swallowing that sphere whole earlier. As he licked blood from his claws and began to pick which body to desecrate first, he wondered just what that ball was to begin with. Would it be fatal to him?   
  
  
  
He hoped not. It tasted nice and spicy going down.   
  
  
  
\----------------------   
  
  
  
“Ssssss.” Rayla hissed between her teeth and tried her best not to scream. Her nose, set back into place, only continued to bleed. “Donae touch it like tha’!”   
  
  
  
The Elf dressing her wounds payed her no attention, continuing to apply the healing balm where she saw fit. Squirming would do no good for spreading it around, but she'd already been warned that multiple times so there was no sense in telling her to lie still. Although, the placement of the balm wasn't the only reason she needed to stay still; her wounds were the width of a strand of hair, but could open up with more ovements. Three very thin streaks of red were noticeable across the girl's pale abdomen, one long enough to stretch from the corner of her belly button to the edge of her hip.  “You need to relax, Rayla. You won't heal by squirming around like this.”   
  
  
  
“Ah wusna squirming! It's not like I can just fahget all about the pain and just pretend nothing happened.” The Elven girl pouted to herself. “This is just belter. Pure belter.”   
  
  
  
Another elf rolled his eyes at the words she spoke. “I didn't take you for the type to cry over wounds, Rayla.”   
  
  
  
Rayla gave him a look that she hoped conveyed that she would fight him if she weren't having her wounds dressed. In fact, she briefly considered shooting up right then and there. “Es nah ordinary wounds, ya bampot. I tol'joo--A giant dragon up from nowhere came and swiped me like that.”   
  
  
  
Her healer sighed. “It's a good thing it didn't try too hard, whatever it was. This dragon could have cleaved you in half and taken your foot off with that bite.”   
  
  
  
Ranaan opened one eye from his meditating stance. “We're still having trouble believing that a dragon was responsible for this.”   
  
  
  
She growled at him, pointing at the wounds being tended to. “ Really? Y'cannae deny this! Ya think I'd just give mahself three lashes here?!”   
  
  
  
Runaan winced slightly at her accusations, but managed to keep his face straight otherwise “I don't deny that you were attacked, Rayla. But you were blinded. Perhaps it was a bear that you didn't see.”   
  
  
  
“I was blinded after th’--Augh! Fecking ballheid,” She bit her tongue instinctively for a moment after, as part of well engraved manners for using sailor language. Remembering who she was in the company of, she ignored the sharp pains and continued. “I didn't go blind until after I got a good look at th’ bastart. He...spat somethin’...awful in mah eyes and then went ta work.”   
  
  
  
“Well why did he leave before we arrived? He could have easily carried you off or fought us all if it were a true dragon.”   
  
  
  
“I dunno! Maybe it doesn't want to attack the rest of you.”   
  
  
  
Ranaan looked away in deep thought, as intensely as he meditated. Then he looked back to her with a questioning gaze. “The dragon is angry at you, then. I believe you must have done something to invoke it's ire.”   
  
  
  
The Elf addressing her wounds, Raina,  finished bandaging her abdomen and handed her the top half of her suit again. “What were you doing before it attacked you?”   
  
  
  
Rayla stared at him incredulously, but the working of fear also worked into her expression. It was as good an explanation as any and offered a reasonable thought as to why it kept its distance from the others when they approached. She wasn't sure what she might have done to piss off the dragon so much but, much to her displeasure, she eventually came up with an answer. “I...I was pettin’ a small doe before he came along and ate it. You...don't suppose…”   
  
  
  
With a mildly sympathetic shrug, her leader sighed through his nostrils. “He must have thought you were stealing his prey. It put you on his most hated list, so to speak. Aside from our combined goal to end the war, it seems you gained a more personal goal.” He explained. “Finding a way to apologize to this supposed dragon to dissuade it from trying to kill you.”   
  
  
  
The skeptic elf smirked at her. “Better hope he doesn't come for you tonight.”   
  
  
  
Then the night was split open with an inhuman shriek.   
  
  
  
The elves were instantly on their feet, Rayla included, weapons poised to attack the slightest sign of moment. Rayla slowly but surely managed to put her suit back on, then found Ranaan's cautious gaze. “That’s the’ sound tha’ black devil made.”   
  
  
  
Raina looked around as if she might see the dragon waiting for her to notice him. “Ranaan, that was in the direction that I ran into that goblin.”   
  
  
  
The youngest assassin winced from the pain of her dressed wounds but managed to stand tall and alert. “You ran into a goblin?”   
  
  
  
“Yes. I took a look around the perimeter of our territory, just as you did. I suppose we both ran into bad luck,” She responded with a despondent grimace and pointed to something on her face. Rayla was not sure how he missed the small cut extending from the corner of her lip, but she felt bad for not noticing it before. “ We were both surprised to see each, but he was the one with the weapon and the one who reacted quicker. I shouldn't have been surprised.”   
  
  
  
“We make mistakes to grow stronger. You will have your revenge in good time.” Ranaan went silent to listen for any more sounds, then finally spoke up after a tense minute or two. “Let's investigate the noise. Carry your weapons, but do not attack unless I give the order to do so. Understood?” Rayla nodded with the rest of them. “Good. Now let's go.”   
  
  
  
Under the darkness of the night and the power of the full moon, the Elves moved much quicker across the dark tree branches than they normally would in the day. Rayla felt relieved and less stressed as she admired the change in her skin tone from light pink to a dark grey. Her muscles moved with greater strength than ever before, allowing her body to shoot across the span of several trees with a single bound. The other elves had more experience with this newfound strength; Rayla had to move fast to keep up with them at the pace they traveled.   
  
  
  
In time, they finally reached their destination and slowed to a stoic halt in the trees. Rayla stopped in between Raina and Ranaan, already preparing herself for an unpleasant sight just by the looks on their faces. No amount of preparation could have stopped her from feeling sick to her stomach at the scene she witnessed.   
  
  
  
Whatever goblin or goblins that had been encountered, they were all dead now. No two goblin bodies were ever alike; one could be entirely disembodied while another could be missing all its limbs and a third could have a caved in rib cage. Blood and gory bits were scattered all around the trashed campsite, and it all glinted in the dimly lit campfire. Rayla shuddered as she detected a few eyeballs and ears in the light of the dying flames. She shuddered again when she saw, atop a pile of shredded corpses, the cause of so much bloody destruction.   
  
  
  
What scared her was how casual it looked, sitting on that nest of flesh and bone with it's scales soaked in red. His rawboned body was relaxed like a hen roosting, with only its powerful neck, jaws and arms at work. It's hands held a goblin limb up to a maw full of scissor ing teeth; gnawing away feverishly until the meat had been stripped and it was simply chewing on a scarlet bone.   
  
  
  
“...T-Tha's him,” Rayla confirmed with a breath more than a whisper.   
  
  
  
The Dragon looked up with a chittering remark, eyes flicking to their hiding spot. Rayla wasn't sure if it knew they were there in the trees, but after a while, the beast went back to chewing on the bone. Ranaan ignored the sound of the bone snapping under the pressure of its jaws. “They must have attacked the dragon, foolish goblins.”   
  
  
  
“Good riddance to them,” Raina frowned grimly at the sight, but there was a glint of satisfaction there as well.   
  
  
  
The elf that had teased her earlier nodded at the sight of the dinosaur. “Ranaan, the dragon has slain our enemies….and possibly saved us from being exposed before we could carry out our mission. Perhaps we should ask it to help us to end the war.”   
  
  
  
Rayla looked at him sharply, then turned her horrified gaze to her leader. Even if the dragon agreed to the offer--which she strongly doubted by the way--she wasn't sure if she could trust a demon so bloodthirsty and vicious in it's actions. Maybe Ranaan thought the same about the great black dragon, or perhaps he had made a decision based off of Rayla's uneasy expression. In either case, he shook his head. “No. Solitary dragons are not known for joining sides. To ask for help would earn a dismissal, or even invite our own deaths at his claws.”   
  
  
  
Rayla quickly added. “Perhaps it's best we leave now, aye?”   
  
  
  
When he nodded, the other elves instantly fled the area and Rayla followed close behind them. However, she paused to look back because of some horrible urge and witnessed another unpleasant sight. The dragon was standing tall atop the pile of bodies with a skull held up in it's claws like a crude sock puppet.   
  
  
  
It smiled at her, a grin far too wide and toothy.   
  
  
  
She shivered and rushed to catch up with the others.   
  
  
  
\--------------------------   
  
  
  
The Indoraptor was starting to enjoy this hunting game.   
  
  
  
He traveled as much of the woods as he desired since the massacre of those ugly creatures, testing his strength against that of larger creatures in the forest and learning from his victorious battles. He'd dismembered large wooly carnivores, multicolored feline creatures and even herbivorous quadrupeds as large as the toothy beast that chased him to this strange land. He killed them all and feasted on their still breathing forms, growing a fondness for the taste of hot blood on his tongue.   
  
  
  
But most importantly, he was enjoying that non-human girl. At least part of his days were spent stalking her from afar and waiting for an opportunity to attack her (which never came despite his hopefulness). He would wait in the bushes, or some high perch in a tree and watch her from that position. It was almost painful how his claws twitched with longing and how his jaws ached for her, lusted for her body in his bite. Still, he'd gladly take the internal torture if only to watch her more. The more he followed her around secretly, the more appetizing and downright delectable this...Rayla appeared to be.   
  
  
  
He had hung around long enough to find that Rayla was her apparent name--the other non-humans kept calling her that and she called them different names in return. He didn’t care much about anything beyond that. They always had one of their own watching late at night for any signs of danger, so it didn't leave him an opportunity to get closer lt Rayla let alone eat her...Until his most recent night when the non-human serving as a guard fell asleep. Perfect.   
  
  
  
The Indoraptor slithered his way between sleeping bodies and followed his tongue to the ambrosial girl he desired. He found Rayla in a strange sleeping position on top of a thick, twisted tree root. Her arms were folded behind her head and one of her legs dangled off the tree root. A calm, neutral expression was on her face and he became aware that the heat of the forest caused a light amount of perspiration on the non-humans. With nary a sound, he crept up to her side and nudged her dangling leg softly with his snout as a test. Rayla must have been a deep sleeper because she gave no reaction to this.   
  
Like a kitten examining its new toy, so did the Indoraptor examine the girl. She had a protective suit on but it did not stop him from sniffing and nudging parts of her body for knowledge. Some areas were toned and muscular and other spots were softer, fleshier. He was often confused by humans and their differences in terms of gender--The Alpha of their group had a muscular pectoral region that he was sure would feel as hard as a rock but females always had soft torsos--extra flesh for some reason. And he didn't even want to start on their facial markings. The Alpha had two markings across the bridge of his nose and his cheeks. Rayla only sported markings on her cheeks. And what were their horns for? He'd never once seen--   
  
Rayla twitched ever so slightly as his snout flushed warm air over her neck. An inhale gathered a particularly tasty aroma and investigating gave him the source. The way her protective skins were designed left her underarms and part of her arms exposed to the elements. His tongue snaked out slowly and flicked at some skin on her arm, just a little bit. Spicy, salty flavor exploded over his tongue at that small little and he whined at being unable to compare her extravagant taste to anything else.His tongue lapped more boldly at her armpit, scooping out more and more juicy flavors with each lick. The Indoraptor only paused when she gave a sleepy giggle, then another when he continued to lick there. He smiled as she smiled; how ironic of her to be laughing so close to her own death.   
  
Speaking of which, he was beginning to have seconds thoughts about eating this delicate apple, at least right now. As gratifying as it would be to tear out her throat or show her her own intestines, he knew it wouldn't be as satisfying as when she was awake. Right now she would have that pumping heart, those whimpering struggles to live. No, he couldn't kill her in this state, but he would savour her flesh in good time.

 

His claw tenderly grasped a lock of her silky hair, then mockingly stroked along her cheek.

 

Then it was gone, along with a predator with brewing plans.   
  
  
  
  
  


  
  


 


	3. Page 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A taaaad bit shorter than the last two chapters, but hopefully still eye catching for you readers!

The blinding sun awoke King Harrow slowly. The hot glow of light took its time stinging beneath his eyelids, prodding him painfully back to the world of the awakened people. It took a little more time for him to register just where he was and that it was sunlight that awakened him. He numbly remembered that he was in bed, in direct line of the window, but it was always closed in the morning. He grunted and finally managed to squint his eyes against the sun, where he saw something other than open window. A figure in familiar robes, wielding a staff as high as his own head, was standing to the right of the window and peering intently at him. Harrow flopped back onto his pillow. 

 

“Viren...didn't I tell you if you ever woke me up this early again,” He asked with a sigh. “ I'd have you executed?”

 

“I  _ know _ you were joking, My King.” The slightest bit of mirth may have returned to Viren's aged face, but it disappeared too quickly for anyone but himself to be sure. “I’m afraid I have troubling news to give you this morning. Hence my barging in,”

 

Harrow rubbed his eyes of sleep and groggily sat up in bed. “Troubling enough to wake me up so soon?”

 

He frowned deeply, seemingly too distressed to speak for a moment. “...Eight of our soldiers are dead, and Fourteen more are gravely wounded.”

 

Harrow stopped rubbing, needless to say. He looked up at Viren and watched as his Mage's face grew more tired looking. The King processed his words with shocked blinks, and then he was looking up at Viren again. “That’s twenty two men.”

 

“I know,” Viren said.

 

“Was this an attack?”

 

“To our understanding. Those who survived are apparently too afraid to give more details on what it was that attacked them.”

 

“It? This wasn't the work of an army?”

 

Viren shook his head. “The most information I've learned is that a...fairly large beast attacked them. This happened just outside our east entrance to the kingdom last night, thankfully far away from the west entrance or else…”

 

Harrow sat up in bed and grimaced. He already knew that the village resided before the west entrance, filled with citizens of the Kingdom. Several innocent villagers could have suffered if this...beast attacked there instead of where it did. Unfortunately, it didn't make things any less pleasant. “And you said the men who survived are too shaken to give more details?”

 

The High Mage confirmed that with a nod. “That’s partly why I woke you up, my king. I was hoping that your influence could... _ encourage _ someone to talk.”

 

* * *

 

 

Hours earlier….

  
  


It was another dark and stormy night.

 

The Indoraptor enjoyed these nights immensely, relishing the cold atmosphere beneath the moon as it soothed his constantly irritated scales. It was a lot better than the nights where the rain would only be able to pound against the mansion roof and run down the stone plates instead of his body, echoing even in the underground chambers beneath the large house. In his pitch black cage, he would lie down among the bones of happless pre-killed goats and stare into the inky nothingness that surrounded him. He had night vision, but he still stared and tried to imagine what it was like to see nothing but darkness and hear nothing but rain. Sometimes it was his only comforting way of getting any sleep in that horrid metal place. 

 

Luckily he had long since abandoned that dreadful life for one less restrained, in a land where he would never be underfed and denied his constant itch to kill and gore. He'd been here for a week now and greatly enjoyed this new land. He was free to choose to his own cave to live in and was quite proud of the cave he selected for his new home, given that it was more than large enough to fit five tyrannosaurs and maybe three more of whatever he was. Granted, it’s previous owner had been a giant, purple feline with two cubs and a fierce attitude towards intruders, but he made quick work of all three of them with...techniques he'd been perfecting. Hunting and fighting were games if you thought about it his way; there were winners and losers and great prizes too. So far he had been one of the winners in this bizarre forest, even going up against very large and very angry creatures. The giant feline had left him with a few light scratches but ultimately, his claws were much longer and much sharper than anything the feline had to offer. He'd finished slurping out the organs of the tiny cubs and had just managed to down half of the mother when the first rumble in the sky gave him pause. He looked up briefly, head cocked as he examined the slowly darkening sky. He cawed hoarsely when the second booming sound erupted above his curious head and greeted his gaze with streaks of thin light. Then came the downpour, gloriously hammering the earth with all of its wonderful raindrops and turning the hard soil into something soft and mushy. He barked with pleasure as the weather produced more falling water from the sky and loud sounds that accompanied the bright flashes of light.

 

The Indoraptor had gone out of the cave more than once with a hollowed shell (from a mammoth tortoise that was quite delicious and spicy) to collect rainwater before it could become one with the ground. He got the idea after recalling how some of the humans that studied him carried around strange containers of steaming liquid, sipping it and smacking their lips. He may not be able to simulate the steam in his case, but he could at least appreciate portable water. He must have guzzled five shells of water, urinated it all and then drank another set after.

 

Content, he gnawed on the spinal cord of the large feline to get at the tendons, scissoring away with the sharp points of his teeth. The beast didn't quite care what he was doing--as long as he had something to do. A bored dinosaur was a desperate dinosaur and he loathed desperatism. As it was, he just so happened to inhale during a gnawing motion and caught wind of a succulent taste beneath the heavy drapes of rain. The Indoraptor smiled as it's head shot up, claws tapping the stone ground in glee.

 

_ Rayla _ .

 

" **Wehk**." He grinned widely.

 

The subject of his obsession was apparently on the move. Nevermind the scents of the other non-humans around her--he only cared about the seductive scent of that delicious girl, calling to him through the calming storm. Chittering in delight at the prospect of spying on her again and maybe even dining on her scrawny, mouth watering body, the black beast scooped up his human skull and trotted out of the cave. Rayla and her...pack were not far off, and he could catch up in a few minutes even if they were on the move. He galloped on all fours through crowded places in the forest and occasionally hopped over bent trees.

 

Aside from the thought of devouring food, he wondered what she was up to at this time of night.

 

* * *

 

 

_ Plink _ !

 

Gretta kicked a stray rock with her boot, and watched it sail from the muddy ground and into the air for a moment. “ _ We don't need horses where we're going, Gee. We can walk all by ourselves, Gee. No distance or weather should stop us, Gee. Don't be a wimp, Gee _ .” She's glared at him from a sidelong angle. “Well look where we are  _ now _ . “

  
  


In hindsight, Marcos should have guessed that they would need a couple of horses to take up most of the travel to and from their destinations. Sure, the east border was not more than three days worth of walking and rest, but that could have easily been cut down to a day's travel. He had wanted a more energetic, scenic route but found that he had a little too much energy by the end of it. His feet were killing him, his back was torturing him and he was sure that Gretta probably felt a hundred times worse. She dragged herself long after that trip, hunched over and wearing a very tired look. If she had known she was going to end up looking like this, she might not have agreed to accompany him and retrieve the messages from the Eastern border.

 

“Well, I for one don't regret it, ” He lied, attempting to raise his spirits and possibly hers by looking unfatigued. In truth, his clinking armor was starting to feel like tons upon his back. Even worse, rain was swelling upon them in pounding drones that constantly assaulted their heads. He felt like a giant block of ice, getting colder the more the wind whipped against them. “We’ve had a much more memorable experience walking this far as opposed to just riding this far.”

 

Gretta pursed her lips. “Yeah, I'm gonna look back on this day years from now. ‘Boy, I remember when I walked seven miles in  _ icy cold downpour _ . Those were the days’.”

 

“We'll be inside soon, alright? Let's just keep walking and try to enjoy the serene blend of weather and nature! Times like this don't show up every day you know.” Marcos tried to show some optimism, and thankfully his only response was a mild sigh. He glanced down at his brunette partner and shrugged. “You know, Gee...this actually reminds me of our second date on Briar Hill! With the blanket and the sunny sky and the sandwiches?”

 

She quickly scoffed his smile off. “The forecast called for rain that day and you knew it. If only you weren't such a stubborn planner.”

 

The man snorted away her accusations. “Be that as it may, we still enjoyed her ourselves, didn't we? Hmm? You can't deny  _ that _ .”

 

Gretta’s cheeks lit up faintly in the dark, but she still kept her unhappy expression rooted to her face. “Hmmph. Only because we took shelter in some abandoned barn and watched from the loft.  There were  _ rats _ in that dingy old place.”

 

“I also brought us some nice sandwiches that day.”

 

“Ham and rotisserie chicken slices are hardly in the range of nice sandwiches. Sure, they weren't bad at all...but...er, the weren't the  _ best _ meal.” She argued with a failing tone. “Although...the fried potato slices you added weren't so bad either…”

 

“...aaand?” He prodded.

 

A small smile finally broke out, a clear sign of surrender. “The drink was mediocre at the  _ least _ .”

 

“Finally! You admit it,” He laughed aloud. “I am a poet with mead-making!”

 

“I never said that at all! You always over exaggerate the simplest of--”

 

_ Squelch _ !

 

“Oh, perfect! Just  _ perfect _ !” Marcus stopped short of another step, curiously staring down. Gretta growled as she tugged on her foot, submerged in a fairly deep patch of mud hat she hadn't noticed in time. “Who puts a muddy sinkhole in the middle of the road?!”

 

Marcos laughed and knelt down in the mud next to her. It seemed that she was stuck up to mid-shin in dark brown mud that heavily clung to her limb. Nothing a good tug wouldn't fix, if they both pulled at the same time. He dug into the hole and grasped her ankle, before glancing up at her. “Alright. Let's pull out on three.”

 

She nodded and his grasp tightened. “Alright, one...two...thr--”

 

_ Snik _ .

 

Just as her foot was freed from the liquid entrapment, a twig snapped somewhere  behind her. Gretta was the second one to actually give it any thought, since her partner was now staring intently behind her. She joined his gaze off into the darkness created by a small grove of trees and bushes. The night and the heavy rainfall only served to make things worse for the eyes of the two humans, who peered intently for any signs of movement.

 

“Maybe it was some woodland creature.” Gretta breathed.

 

“Out in  _ this _ weather?” He asked.

 

“...Good point.” She stood up to her full height and tried to gain more sight by leaning forward. “Couldn't tell for sure. You?”

 

Marcos shrugged at her and also found himself standing to his full height. The darkness before them seemed too threatening to be normal, to be hiding any harmless fauna. He inhaled as much breath necessary for a verbal warning and began. “Who goes there?!” 

 

Nothing moved. “Show yourself!” A little frustrated and worried, he tried again. “In the name of King Harrow, I demand that you show yourself!”

 

The rain filled the silence with static noise. It became more unsettling as time passed by, yielding no fruit for his efforts. Nothing moved and nothing spoke for several seconds, and then a few minutes. From the corner of his vision, he saw Gretta slowly turn to shoot him an uncertain look, and that’s when the sound came. The unmistakable noise when a bow string is pulled back, just milliseconds away from being released.  Marcos felt a strange, foreshadowing chill before his body leaped into action.

 

He just barely managed to shove her out of the way time before a thin blur flashed past them as fast as a blink. Gretta cried out as a thick red line was painted on the side of her neck, losing more red as he pulled her backwards away from the dark shadows. He unclipped his loaded crossbow with the false assumption that dirty bandits had waited on the path to attack and steal from them. A flash of lightning illuminated the dark tree grove for just an instant, and his reflexes had him to fire before he even realised who was hiding in the shadows. When the image played over in his head, depicting his arrow hitting the shoulder of a shocked figure, he felt fear grip his heart. Marcos looked back to his partner.

 

“Gretta, are you good to run?” He asked.

 

Gretta’s left hand was a dark scarlet color, painted that way from the way she covered the small gash on her neck. She seemed surprised and a little frightened by the near death experience, but she nodded quickly. “Y-yeah! I-I can...run.” She stumbled back with him, nervously glancing to the origin of the arrow that struck her. “Bandits?!”

 

Marcos swallowed as he half sprinted, half pushed her along. “Elves! Keep moving!”

 

As if she needed any motivation after hearing what attacked her. They needed no introduction--no formal prelude to explain what elf assassins were or what they could do. They were the most dedicated killers in history, which equally made them the deadliest kind. Marcos couldn't begin to recount the dozens of lives taken by pairs of Elven assassins, or the many more taken by entire packs. The only traces they left behind in their murderous wake were headless bodies and widows. He knew what Elven Assassins were.

 

Just their luck they had to encounter  _ Moonshadow _ Elves.

 

* * *

 

 

Rayla made nary a breath as she darted forward.

 

It was a bit surprising to be selected for the job, but she was not going to complain about handling potential threats. When they investigated the arrival of two humans traveling along the path to Harrow's kingdom, she traveled alongside her fellow assassins to intercept them before they reached their land and hid in the shadows of trees. When they were eventually discovered, Rayla found brief shock coursing through her body when Runaan gave the hand signal for Rayla to follow them. It wasn't nearly as shocking as this morning when she witnessed firsthand the sensation of being blood bonded to their mission. A second's worth of hesitation followed before she finally reacted by shooting off from the ground and following them. 

 

Her feet padded silently in the muddy earth while the humans sprinted like a loud flock of  _ Fila-Ma-Loo birds  _ to evade her. They were far ahead of her but she gained ground every time they had to clumsily hop over fallen trees and cracks in the ground. The Elf girl scaled these obstacles with the agility of a  _ Tanacht Leopard,  _ often utilizing a backflip or somersault to get past a very high log. Things got tricky when she had to squeeze through a bramble of thorny bushes and vines, but she was wearing her thick hood and suit, thankfully. It was right after that moment that a stray arrow whistled past and knicked her bare shoulder.

 

There was a moment of brief shock, followed a growing anger at the audacity of the humans. With a growl, Rayla charged forward with even more force than before and leveled her arms out behind her for a more streamlined position. The elven assassin flung herself to the tops of trees to avoid another near miss, hopping from one branch to another without missing a beat. At times she used her momentum and one of her curved blades to swing from a high branch to a lower one. The humans would occasionally look back in hopes of knowing where she was, this leading to a nearly fatal mistake.

 

Rayla watched as they tumbled over the edge of a short cliff and hissed when they disappeared beneath the black surface of a pool of rainwater. Time passed her by very slowly. Just when she assumed they'd both drowned in the filthy muck, two heads popped up from the surface to gasp. They’d shed their armor to stay afloat; a wise choice, though it would not save them. For...reasons, Rayla would not dive into the water after them--not when it seemed wiser to land in the more shallow portions of it.

 

Rayla's careful landing grabbed the attention of the humans, who both scrambled their way out of the water and backed away from their approaching killer. The male guard glanced behind them and shoved the female in the direction of the treeline. “Go! Run back to the kingdom!”

 

The female glared at him from behind and unsheathed a small sword. Her expression was certain, yet not entirely unafraid. “I'm not leaving you.”

 

Rayla briefly wondered about the history of these two humans. For a split second, she wondered if they had a planned future together and if they were both afraid of this being their last day alive. For a fraction of a second, she wondered if she could actually bring herself to kill the two of them no matter the cost…

 

Then in the next fraction, she flicked her blade up and slashed along the arm of the male. He leaped back in pain and thusly allowed his mate rush up and swing her own blade. She seemed a bit more skilled in the art of sword fighting but not as skilled as Rayla was. The elf girl made quick work of parrying the oncoming attacks and dodging the whistling blade until she finally managed to knock the sword out of her hands. Rayla made to thrust her blade into her opponents stomach, but the woman fluidly stepped to the side and promptly socked her in the jaw. 

 

_ Okay then.  _ Rayla gritted her teeth as she kicked both feet forward and launched the woman backwards. The male had recovered enough to rush forward with his own sword, but his was knocked out of his hand much faster. Before he could go for the hidden dagger, she knocked him onto his backside and flicked her wrists. Her blades rested on either side of his throat, ready to pass each other open his neck. The male did not dare to move.

 

Time stopped for her.

 

Rayla should have found it all too easy to connect the sharp edges of her blades, to watch him bleed out and do the same to the female. It would have been simple to take the deceased bodies and hide them somewhere where they would never be found or to let some wayward beast desecrate their bodies for sustenance. It should have been easy to kill them.

 

“Don't!” Rayla's ears twitched uncomfortably when the female took notice of the situation but stayed her distance. Her voice seemed on the verge of cracking--desperate and scared. “Please, don't!”

 

The male didn't fare any differently, it seemed. She was hoping he would put on an expression that would urge her to kill him--to wear a look of anger, hatred or even a dignified sneer. But instead of any inspiring emotions, he stared up at her with the pure definition of fear written all over his face. His eyes were wide, face as pale as the moon itself. The more she stared, the more her hands shook.

 

_ Jes’ do it. Connect th’ blades, Rayla. Jes’ connect th’ blades. Ya cyant let ‘m go. They'll tell th’ whole kingdom. Jes’ slice his throat open. Do it. Com on. Jes’ do it, already! _

 

Rayla's blades dropped from his neck, and she stepped back.

* * *

" **Chrak**?!"

 

The Indoraptor shot upright, barking in confusion.

 

It hadn’t taken the black beast long to find his tasty snack and her posse, all hiding in the narrow space of a few trees as rain pounded down on them. The dinosaur had wondered what they were waiting for at first when a pair of humans arrived on the scene. This time he could tell they were humans--he could identify their horrible aura wherever he went. Apparently, the non-humans despised the humans as much as he did because Rayla went darting after them.

 

The Indoraptor found no difficulty in following the three of them, bouncing from thick log to thick log with the grace of a cat and stalking low in the grass to remain unseen. He gawked at Rayla when she rose to bound from tree tops, fascinated by her skill in this forest. He could never hope to be so nimble, but it was... _ nice _ to watch her.

 

He raced to the edge of the cliff they all went over and peered down excitedly, tail swaying like a giddy puppy. The humans had been quickly defeated by Rayla, who was now about to cut open the throat of one of them. The monster's eyes widened to take in the sight, anticipating the fatal chop that would mix blood and water…

 

That was when he shot upright, barking in confusion. Rayla gave up just when the tension was highest; her blades dropped to her sides and left no cuts. As if to make things worse, the male human swiftly scrambled to his feet and rushed away with the other in tow. And what did Rayla do? She stood there with a hunched, pitiful stance. 

 

The Indoraptor snarled and raked his claws on the ground. She had the opportunity to end their lives! Why did she hesitate?! Why did she give up?!

 

With a ferocious gurgle, he galloped down after the disappearing humans until the trees started to thin out. The female one seemed to be doing the most by urging him on, despite his arm's injuries. With his good arm, the male human unsheathed something from his side and shot it into the air. A great sparkling ball of magenta reached its peak in the night sky and illuminated everything. 

 

They had been running towards a giant human structure.

 

It was far taller and far bigger than the mansion he roamed in his past, like a mountain with man-made carvings and angles. He could see that it was made of objects like brick, but thicker and rounder than them. A giant stone gate sat before a in empty stone courtyard, with tall wooden doors in place. Perhaps it was the shot of light that sparked it or something else entirely, but the wooden doors slowly opened up to allow a swarm of armor clad humans to come pouring out. Clearly they were to help the two limping humans in the clearing.

 

It didn't matter how many were present-- he would _fix_ Rayla's mistake.

  
  
  



	4. Page 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a long wait.

Claudia awoke to blinding sunlight, just as she did every morning.

 

It pierced her eyelids through the window next to her bed, making her nose scrunch up in discomfort and mild annoyance. Momentarily blinded and still drowsy, she turned over onto her side to avoid having to deal with nature's greatest rooster waking her up. She would have quickly fallen asleep too, if not for the knock that came at her door. She groaned face first into her pillow, then reluctantly helped herself out of bed so she could stomp over to the door and open it.

 

A familiar, young girl with short brown hair and a freckled face stood there in her usual, uncomfortable white gown. “Good morning, _Mistress Claudia_!”

 

“What's so good about it?” Claudia tried to sound angry that she'd been awakened, but it came off as tired.

 

“We both actually woke up! _Alive_ , you know.”

 

“Speak for _yourself_.” Claudia reached forward and grasped the gourd in her servant's hands, before flashing a not so good natured grin. “Thanks for the water. I'll take it from here.”

 

“I’ll prepare your breakfast then, ” The servant started to walk off, but paused in midstep. “Would you like your eggs scrambled or omelet style?”

 

“Omelet please. _Extra_ mozzarella.” Claudia was silent for about another half second. “...Oh,and strawberry milk.”

 

The door closed gently, allowing Claudia to waltz her way to her bedroom mirror without any trouble. She tilted the gourd enough for fresh water to spill into the shallow bowl on her dresser, then proceeded to wash her face with it. It was steaming hot, a stark contrast to the painfully cold water she used to get long ago. Clearly that servant girl knew what she was doing.

 

She looked up to glare at the next challenge of her morning; bed hair. Her raven black locks were all tangled and poofy, like a nest fit for a hawk or two--but not for long. She gripped a long-toothed comb in one hand and a bristly brush in the other before getting straight to work. With delicate precision, Claudia raked her way through the messy strands with the comb and then brushed over to leave it nice and smooth. Within five minutes, she finally managed to reduce the savage beast on her head to a purring kitten. Well, _that's_ how she likes to describe it.

 

Without pausing, she opened the first shelf of her dresser to get started on her clothing. She fitted a dark grey _stays_ around her upper torso and tied the laces so that it would fit snugly, not tightly over the shift. Her _petticoat_ was as black as night but as slender as a serpent, easily fitted around her waist with a little maneuvering. After finishing that off with a second, dark purple stays over the first one, Claudia concluded her entire ensemble with a _neckercheif_ settled over her shoulders and tucked in the top portion of her stays. She looked at herself in the mirror.

 

_Yep_. Still looking good.

 

Right on schedule, her servant knocked at the door and revealed a plate of steaming hot eggs, bacon and flapjacks. Claudia nodded in approval of her work and gently took the plate, along with the pink colored milk. “Will that be all for you, Mistress?” The servant smiled.

 

“For the time being. Thank you, Jane.” 

 

The servant started to back up, but ended up being bumped aside by a fast moving figure clad in armor and a hairstyle way ahead of its time. Claudia grinned mischievously when she recognized the figure. “Hey, _Sore-Bear_!”

 

Her brother kept on walking even after that obvious attempt to annoy him, making her smile fall quickly. She watched hm travel down the hall to meet two soldiers, where they exchanged anxious words that she couldn’t quite make out. “Hmm.”

 

“They seem _distressed_.” Jane observed with a frown.

 

Claudia walked forward. “Astute observation. _BRB_.”

 

* * *

 

 

The forest was alive with the sounds of chatter from birds and bugs. It echoed through the tree branches and over the grassy spots that were littered everywhere. The wind carried things both seen and unseen around the many acres of plant life. A K'fea bird glided leisurely in the sun-setted sky, low above the coniferous paradise. The bird, feathers warmly toasted by only half the sun by now, made no sound in her travels over the tops of Padauk trees. The avian surveyed the world below with a literal bird's eye view: seeing that all her neighbors were settling down for the incoming night. East of the bird's left wing, a parade of mammoth paused in the middle of a clearing by their own tusks and each assumed a sleeping position. The head bull was secluded at the ‘front' of the herd, and the restless calves were stationed in a circle of mothers. West of her right wing, a Saber-Tusked Grizzly stiffly arranged itself in the branches of a curvaceous tree and ignored the unease it caused in the neighboring monkeys.   
  
Following the bear's move, The K'fea bird selected what appeared to be a good sized tree and angled her wings to lower her down softly. The landing was perfect, albeit slightly shaky from the wind. It ruffled its feathers once, then twice, to prepare for the usual sing song that it yavs on such a bright day. The K'fea bird chirped loudly to join the chorus of voices in the air, the crackling buzz that its tiny mind considered to be harmony. Yes, the beautiful sounds that all meshed together--

 

“ **_chUUAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIE_ ** !”

 

And so, the forest became silent again. 

 

The Indoraptor, pleased with the abrupt end to the noise, plodded slowly to the side of the river. His tail dragged across the ground behind him; a lethargic tube of flesh with no energy as it usually had. The great beast rasped as he lazily blinked down at his reflection in the water, occasionally disrupted by drops of crimson as they fell into the river. Blood soaked nearly his entire head, but none of it belonged to him.

 

Ah, the attack had been flawless. He still remembered the rush of humans around him, scattering this way and that like a school of frightened fish trying to evade a shark. His claws were swiping this way and that with the speedy precision of a cat, flashing through spines and throats and armor quite easily. He killed and ate his way through the majority of the humans that came out to meet him. The only reason he didn't kill more is because, for the first time in his life--he finally ate his _fill_.

 

The humans that once stared down at him behind thick rimmed glasses and emotionless stares had neglected to give him big enough meals. It was always a single fish or a _single_ steak that they tossed for him to eat. He was always underfed--given just barely enough to live to the next day. But today, he was stuffed full of warm organs and flesh that seemed to spread the warmth to each of his limbs. Thusly, he was quite drowsy after the meal and came in search of some place to sleep the rest of the day away.

 

The Great Black Beast cawed baritone nonsense as he began to lower his muzzle into the water, slurping and drinking his fill of the river before he finally and shook his snout clear of water. He turned away with only a sigh of tiring, crawling a little ways away to a particularly sunny spot amongst some trees.  He circled the area twice and finally settled him down into a relaxing position. The drowsy, blood-filled dinosaur was asleep in seconds.

 

His body blended in with his surroundings in even less time.

 

* * *

 

 

Runaan wasn't worried, exactly. There was no need to be worried about one of their own when they were absent for an extensive time period. He'd made sure that the members of his clan were all incredibly well trained for almost any imaginable situation. Being caught off guard was possible for anyone, but that didn't mean there was any chance of that happening to one of their own so soon. He _wasn’t_ worried at all about how long she'd been gone--not one bit. A better term for his state of mind would be...curious.

 

After all, he'd only dispatched her last night to handle the spies. It shouldn't take long to silence two humans; untrained scum with weak weaponry to defend themselves. He shouldn't be worried about it though--this was Rayla's first kill as a full fledged assassin, so obviously she might be enjoying her first prize. No way whatsoever for her to be any trouble, so there was no need to worry. And he wasn't worried. Just curious. That's all that Runaan was. Just curious and…

 

Rayla stepped out from the cluster of bushes and yawned.

 

Runaan coughed, stopped tapping his foot nervously and pretended to barely notice her. His eyes did scan her for injuries and marveled at what he could plainly see. Crimson liquid trickled from the blades and dripped from the tips to hit the ground with each footstep of hers. A bit too proud of her accomplishment to keep quiet, Runaan raised his head with a solemn look of respect. “...Well done, Rayla. Well done.”

 

The Elven girl paused in midstep past him, blinking in very brief confusion. She flashed him a somewhat forced grin. “Oh! T-Thanks.” She stood in the depths of awkward silence for a moment and swiftly raised her blades to eye level. “...Ah...used _both_ of ‘em...?”

 

Runaan briefly admired the gory blades of hers, before tossing her a damp rag. “Hmm. I can see that….Which technique did you use?”

 

Rayla was silent, but not for long. “Ah used th’ ‘ _Wingspan_ ’ technique. Off with th’heads an’...stuff. Bodies'll never be found. Never even made it close to the courtyard."

 

Hmm. Wingspan? That was a little unorthodox for his tastes, but he supposed it was one of the more easy moves and he quickly appreciated that she chose it. “Very good choice.”

 

“You're back.” One of the Elves led the rest over to them, holding a hefty clump of cloth pieces in both of her hands as if it were a sacred relic. Rayla could instantly realise that they were sacred. “Now we can begin our oaths.”

 

Rayla glanced at Runaan in surprise, and a slow smile began to appear on her freckled face. “Ah didn't think Ah was ready t'do this jes’ yet!”

 

“Well, you've made your first kills now” Raina remarked with a shrug. “That means you're willing to fight with us. Means you have the heart for it.”

 

“..Y-Yes. M'heart for _Xadia_.” 

 

Rayla nodded and forced herself to wear an equally serious expression. As she placed her weapons aside and walked over to the join the others, she couldn't help but feel the slightest bit guilty about joining their ranks with the oath ceremony. She wished she could find some way to make herself feel that she deserved this. Some way to turn her conscience around on itself. Alas, she felt she was going to be feeling this way throughout the entire chant.

  
  


Thank goodness the others couldn't smell the _berry juice_ dripping off the swords.

  
  


* * *

 

 

Harrow wasn't sure what he was going to see in the Medical center, but this was worse than anything he could have imagined.

 

To say the entire room was a chaotic, bloody mess would be an understatement. Patients were strewn everywhere, making navigation for the nurses and doctors quite the challenge. Even entering the room was a tough process, as Harrow and Viren had to wait for a trio of men to carry three injured soldiers across the room to empty beds. Some of the soldiers that caught sight of their king tried to get up and kneel, to matter how grave their wounds looked. He quickly gestures for them to not move; he didn't want them to lose their rest just to show him respect. He valued their lives more than their respect at this moment.

 

Many of the nurses were skilled in the healing arts of dark magic, which they were using to help as many as they could. Harrow saw how their faces tightened when they had to gaze upon glistening intestines and face that were already at death's door. He saw their shaking hands work their magic, coated with far too much blood and how they never stayed with one patient for too long. There weren't enough nurses to help everyone, after all. As much as he wished for that to be a false statement, the kingdom was in short supply of those medically trained. 

 

Harrow remembered Viren was right beside him, looking more sick to his stomach at the mess around them. “...W-when did you hear of this?”

 

Viren tore himself away from whatever sympathetic thoughts were brewing and frowned. “About a few minutes before I woke you. I am still trying to understand why I was informed so late. I was...studying a mirror when one of the guards rushed in and explained what happened.”

 

Harrow swallowed as surveyed the damage again. “This is unbelievable. One creature did all of... _ this _ .”

 

“I know, ” The man agreed sadly. “I've never heard of any beast that can do this to twenty two men all at once.”

 

“...I-I want answers.” The King turned to Viren, his expression changing from heartbroken to determined. He caught the attention of a doctor with a nod. “Who is the most likely to speak with me?”

 

The Doctor lifted his mask to reveal a grim expression. “I know one woman here. I believe she has fewer injuries than the other patients and she is conscious. Follow me.”

 

They followed with curt footsteps, both a little anxious about just who they would see and what they would hear. Harrow exchanged a disheartened glance with Viren when they approached the woman--one he recognized. Her ginger hued hair could have belonged to no other soldier than  _ Gretta _ . But in the place of her usually serious and devout facial expression when in his presence, the woman now bore a face as pale as snow and the most distant look of horror he'd ever seen. Tales of the front line against the forces of Xadia paled in comparison to the look on her face. Sympathy coiled around his heart and squeezed like a Limiwi python.

 

The woman didn't look up when he approached, but did when he coughed. Gretta still held pain in her eyes, but they lit up with recognition of the two men. “My King. Sir Viren.”

 

“King Harrow wishes for someone to explain what happened last night, ” Viren explained calmly, and occasionally glanced at Harrow. “There are men here who able...but not willing. We are hoping you will be able to shed some light on what happened.”

 

Gretta swallowed once, shuddered through her nose and preferred that her eyes remained down at her lap. Harrow and Viren waited patiently beside each other, and were finally given words from her. “...It was dark last night….when Marcos and I returned from the Eastern forefront. We were traveling down the usual road to get back into the courtyard when sounds alerted us. We'd been...set upon by--”

 

“The beast?” Harrow finished hesitantly.

 

“No...M-Moon Shadow Elves.”

 

A portion of the room went silent, and Harrow registered that Viren's grip tightened on his staff. The King himself might have flinched at hearing the name; borrowing his brow in surprise. That name was given to the army of cutthroats who were famous for their danger in combat. Survivors from front battles told cautionary tales about their might. To hear that a group of them were somewhere in the bordering forest...was dreadful. Nevertheless, he listened again when she continued to talk uncomfortably.

 

“T-They sent one of their own to kill us, since we'd seen them in the dark. We were...cornered, but...the elf didn't kill either of us.” Gretta couldn't help sounding confused at that, even when her trembling voice was the result of residual fear.  “It h-had the blades at his throat, but it didn't kill Marcos. We didn't know why, but we ran away as fast as we could. Marcos managed to light a flare to get the attention of the gatekeeper…”

 

Gretta turned green, just the slightest bit, before her eyes shut tightly. “...T-The dragon...a-ate his h...h-head.”

 

Another portion of the room ceased their ambience, and another cold weight settled upon everyone. Viren met a similarly grace expression on Harrow's face and neither said anything. A Dragon; a beast born of flame that ironically brought others to death in the same manner. Towering giants whose teeth were swords, and their claws were spears. Even the lesser known dragons, cousins to the long dead King, were legendary for their ability to create hurricanes by their wings alone.

 

And one was just outside the kingdom.

 

“I...I-I was knocked aside and only...w-woke up here, My king.” Gretta sniffled and forced herself to keep going. Even when Harrow subconsciously wanted to her to stop reliving the horror. “But I can...can still remember the last sight that I had. The men rushing out... its size...its bloody teeth...its scales, black as oil...it  _ eyes _ . Like it s-stole Satan's eyes and used them as its own.”

 

“...This is no coincidence.” Viren finally settled, and tapped the crystal edge of his staff. “No. Moonshadow Elves and Dragons all in one night? No...they are in  _ league _ .”

 

If there was any reason to doubt his words, Harrow would have. But he knew in his heart that it made all too much sense; Elves and Dragons all originated from the forbidden lands of Xadia and nowhere else. There was no way a pack of assassins and a bloodthirsty dragon would attack one after the other in mere coincidence. Gretta and Marcos were spared just so the beast could have its meals. And it did, according to the high body count.  The very thought made him angry, but also afraid. What if the Elves were planning to attack the castle, let the dragon devour him and his children. He--no!

 

He would  _ not _ let his children die at their hands. He would prepare.

 

King Harrow folded his arms behind his back as he faced Viren. He appreciated the respectful nod Viren gave to him. “Gather a small army. No less than sixty men. Send them on a patrol through the forest and bring me evidence of these assassins. If they encounter the dragon, they are to retreat back here.”

 

“I have ways of locating them quickly, My King. They will not fail to find the assassins.” Viren explained dutifully. “What shall you do?”

 

King Harrow turned away with a grim frown. “I have much to consider...and very little time.”

 

* * *

 

 

Rayla admired the band around her wrist. 

 

It wasn't loose, but it wasn't right either. It looked like any ordinary cloth, but didn't tear when she tugged it on a certain way. She hummed as she examined the Elven markings on the side of it. They had been glowing when the cloth wrapped around her wrist and broke off from the others. Even without the glow, she could see still make out the words inscribed in ancient black fluid. _Heart_.

 

Her heart for Xadia.

 

Rayla sighed, and she wished she didn't know why she sighed. But it was all too easy to remember the trick she'd played on everyone by coming back to them with her  blades soaked in berry juice. None had been the wiser but her, and that didn't make her feel proud at all. A part of her knew that if she didn't hesitate to kill the humans, she would have felt a sincere sense of pride. If she had the heart to do it, then--

 

_ No, Ah have th'heart. M'heart for Xadia _ . She glared to herself, to cease her bathing thoughts.  _ Ah'll be ready th'next time. Ah have to. _

 

All thoughts seemed to vanish when a butterfly began to circle her head, and her eyes quickly followed it. The butterfly was fairly large and light blue, with black markings to accentuate the color of its wings. She marveled as it landed on her shoulder and flexed its wings, created the slightest wafts of air against the Elf. She'd never seen this kind of insect before--not one so mall. She was used to the memory of riding giant beetles as a little Elflet. The smallest by she'd ever seen aside from this butterfly was a Pygmy Mantis, which was known for its ability to--

 

Rayla gave a sharp shriek of surprise when Runaan suddenly clamped a hand over her mouth and actually dragged her over to the shade of a few surrounding trees. As she struggled to pry his hand off and give him a piece of her mind, she noticed that the other Elves were also statined beneath the tree, shrouded in shadows and looking strangely tense. Runaan gave some sort of signal to one of his subordinates, and she quickly doused everyone in a cloaking spell. 

 

Rayla's struggles diminished a little, but only because there was clearly something she wasn't getting here. She started out at the clearing for any signs of danger, anything past the fluttering butterfly. She hoped it wasn't that weird dragon again. Things were going too good for her to be troubled by it.

 

While the threat did not appear in the form of a creepy black _demon_ , the actual thing was just as shocking. A parade of armor clad bodies marched their way through the camp grounds, with helmets housing angry looking eyes that scanned everywhere. The Elf girl fought to contain her gasp as the army slowed in the middle of the clearing, unaware of the hidden enemy but still wary. One of them stared at the butterfly with a radiating aura of impatience. 

 

"Soren, why are we wasting our time following this _bug_?" He growled aloud. "A clan of filthy murderers are somewhere in this forest, and we're _literally_ chasing butterflies!"

 

"My dad... _Viren_ said this butterfly would lead us right to the Elves." Another human spoke up, sounding younger than the other. "Perhaps it's led us to a place they've _been_."

 

"This doesn't look like the road Gretta would walk through with Marcos. She told us it was the road from the North front." Yet another one spoke up. "If they were here, they've been long gone."

 

Soren, as he was called, spoke up quickly. "Well, men. They aren't the only thing we're after. We need safe visual of The _Dragon_ , to report back to Viren and King Harrow."

The skeptical man huffed in agreement. "Yeah. Let's find that Dragon. First chance they give me, I'll be wearing a necklace of Elf eyeballs and Dragon teeth. See if he can eat our men _then_!"

 

The men all agreed angrily yet definitely. They shuffled along past the butterfly and made their way through a section of close together trees, creating no noise except for the intimidating clink of metal armor. Rayla felt uneasy as the last one to leave sneered at the campsite before disappearing after his comrades. She joined her Elves as they cautiously crept out minutes after and stared at the space the humans had once been in. Swallowing, Rayla glanced at Runaan. "They were trackin' us with a Butterfly."

 

Runaan nodded. "Some of their insects can be attuned to...threats."

 

"This is not good." One of the Elves grimaced. "Had we not seen them coming, our plan would have been over before it started."

 

Raina gave a glum sigh, and adjusted the straps of her sack. "Do you think we should move to a new campsite, Runaan?"

 

Every eye turned to their leader for an answer, though he seemed to be thinking about just how to respond. Rayla opened her mouth, perhaps to say something encouraging, but was interrupted by another member. "Wait. Those humans mentioned _Marcos_ and _Gretta_. That seems familiar, doesn't it?"

 

Raina nodded slowly. "Actually yes. Those are the names of the humans we saw last. Or, at least the woman was named Gretta."

 

The Elf nodded. "That's what I thought. _Strange:_ how a corpse can _talk_ , isn't it Rayla?"

 

Oh boy.

 

Rayla swallowed as all eyes slowly turned to her, but she didn't dare to take a step back. She racked her mind for anything to diffuse the crumbling situation, and soon became desperate enough to spout whatever came to mind. "Pfft. Th'humans were probably _lying_. They kinda implied that th' _dragon_ killed the lot of 'em anyway, so--"

 

" _You_ , " Runaan narrowed his eyes. "let the dragon kill them?! You _lied_ to us?!"

 

"No, Ah never let th' stupid thing do anehthing! Ah d'nae know it was there to begin with, " Rayla shrank a little, wringing her hands nervously. Oh why didn't she have the guts to do it? Why did that dragon to pop up now of all times?! "Look, A-Ah'm sorry! I had th' blades at his throat but...Ah _couldn't_! Ah saw the _fear'n_ his eyes an' Ah jes'--"

 

"Saw the fear in his eyes?!" One of the Elves sneered. "You are _pathetic_!"

 

Runaan growled, voice dripping with dissappointment. "Of course he was afraid, Rayla! That doesn't dismiss the fact that you had a _job_ to do! Instead you let the Dragon do your job for you; too late to stop them from alerting the kingdom! A mere _beast_ had more will than you, Rayla."

"...B-But they did'n do _anehthing_ to me!" She tried to explain with feeble, failing words. "How could Ah jes' take their lives?!"

 

"You let _them_ live _,_ but _you've killed us all_!"

 

Rayla's silent, ashamed face was small against their scornful glares.


End file.
